The Monterrey Spanish mackerel (''Scomberomorus concolor'') is a species of

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

in the family

Scombridae The mackerel, tuna, and bonito family, Scombridae, includes many of the most important and familiar food fishes. The family consists of 51 species in 15 genera and two subfamilies. All species are in the subfamily Scombrinae, except the but ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

where it is found in the northern part of the

Gulf of California The Gulf of California (), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Vermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja California peninsula from ...

. It is the subject of a fishery, its population is declining and the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

has rated it as being a "

vulnerable species A vulnerable species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being threatened species, threatened with extinction unless the circumstances that are threatened species, ...

Description

The Monterrey Spanish mackerel is a less deep-bodied fish than the

bonito Bonitos are a tribe of medium-sized, ray-finned, predatory fish in the family Scombridae, which it shares with the mackerel, tuna, and Spanish mackerel tribes, and also the butterfly kingfish. Also called the tribe Sardini, it consists of ...

with which it is sometimes confused. The back is steely blue and the flanks silver. The pectoral fins are small and are located close to the gill covers. The dorsal fin has 15 to 18 spines and 16 to 20 soft rays while the anal fin has 19 to 23 soft rays. The lateral line curves downwards towards to the tail. Males are unspotted but females have two series of brown spots. Its

standard length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of fish anatomy, their anatomies, for data used in many areas of ichthyology, including Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy and fishery biology. Overall length Standard length (SL) is ...

is and its maximum weight is .

Distribution

Historically the Monterrey Spanish mackerel was probably present in the

eastern Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the conti ...

and Gulf of California as one continuous population. More recently there have been two widely separated populations, one in the Gulf of California and the other in the East Pacific, along the coasts of California as far south as the Mexican border. The open sea population migrated northwards to

Monterey Bay Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean located on the coast of the U.S. state of California, south of the San Francisco Bay Area. San Francisco itself is further north along the coast, by about 75 miles (120 km), accessible via California S ...

in September and then moved southwards in November to spend the winter around Catalina Island and in the

Santa Barbara Channel The Santa Barbara Channel is a portion of the Southern California Bight and separates the mainland of California from the northern Channel Islands. It is generally south of the city of Santa Barbara, and west of the Oxnard Plain in Ventura Co ...

. However, the range of this fish has contracted, the open sea population has vanished, and the fish is now restricted to a single population in the northern part of the Gulf of California.

Status

The Monterrey Spanish mackerel is caught alongside the Pacific sierra (''Scomberomorus sierra'') by the use of gillnets, and the two fish are jointly marketed as "sierra". This makes it difficult to establish the conservation status of the Monterrey Spanish mackerel, however it is estimated that the total population has been declining markedly because of over-exploitation, with a further 40% reduction expected in the next ten years. With no sign in a reduction in fishery activity, the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...

has rated this fish as being a "

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q311051 Scomberomorus Fish of the Gulf of California Endemic fish of Mexico Taxa named by William Neale Lockington Fish described in 1879 Scombridae Taxonomy articles created by Polbot

Description

Distribution

Status

See also

References